But this song is confusing to me. After the war is over, there are these words:
Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
“Virgil, quick, come see,
There goes Robert E. Lee!”
Robert E Lee was never in Tennessee during or after the war. This must be a reference to the passenger river boat on the Mississippi, the Robert E. Lee. This is the steamboat that won the famous race with the Natchez. It launched in 1866.
But the lyrics don’t say “there goes the Robert E. Lee.” The lyrics say there goes Robert E. Lee, like it was the man. So which is it? The man or the riverboat?
It was referring to the riverboat.
There are different versions of the lyrics — some with, some without “the.” Maybe Canadian Robbie Robertson didn’t know about the Civil War details and some of the singers did.
I’ve listened to The Band’s version much more, and Levon sort of hesitates when he sings the line, “there goes..uh..Robert E Lee” so to my ear it’s like he subvocalized “the” in there.
Here’s a live version and he sings it the same way:
https://youtu.be/jREUrbGGrgM
No idea whether he knew it should refer to the river boat or not.